This invention relates to improvements in devices used to used to label radiographs (otherwise known as x-rays), and more particularly, to an embosser which may be used to permanently label dental radiographs.
Numerous methods and devices have been employed in an attempt to label x-ray film with specific information. These methods include labeling the films with an ink or other permanent dye, utilizing lead letters and numbers placed on to the film during exposure, and etching directly on to the remaining emulsion on the x-ray film. These methods not only tend to be cumbersome, but also take more time and skill than is necessary.
In dentistry, in particular, the use of small (mouth size) radiographic film is essential. The general dentist may expose up to twenty films on any given patient, thereafter placing the films in a radiographic holder and labeling them. However, due to the fact that more than one office personnel often handles the films, they are sometimes either misplaced or attached to the wrong chart. These radiographs are later discovered in different charts or in the dark room hours, and sometimes, days after the patient has left the office. Although these x-ray films are not technically lost, they are no longer of diagnostic value because of the difficulty in correctly matching them to their corresponding patients.
Endodontics, a specific branch of dentistry concerned with diseases of the tooth pulp, depends on radiographs for significant amounts of information during the course of therapy. Many times, two sets of radiographs are exposed so that the referring dentist as well as the endodontist can each keep a copy of the x-rays for his or her own records. Again, the radiographs may be handled by several personnel in each dental office before reaching their destination in the patient's chart.
The loss of developed x-ray films, as well as the inability to correctly identify the same, usually results in additional and unnecessary patient radiographic exposure. This is due to the fact that, when old x-rays are lost or misplaced, new x-rays are generally taken in order to provide the practitioner with the complete information that he or she needs in order to treat his or her patients.